St. Valentine’s Day

I make tiny paper Valentines–I’ve been making them for years. My first one was a line drawing of a wheelbarrow on white paper, glued to the front of a red cardstock card; on the inside was William Carlos Williams’s famous red wheelbarrow poem. That’s all. I love little cards, small sealed envelopes, special greetings. I wanted to make and give things that weren’t necessarily romantic, but fanciful, and keep-able.

This year, because I have fallen in love with New York City, the inner poem is from a Frank O’Hara poem, “1951.” For the outside, I made miniature skylines out of recycled Village Voices. I used black origami paper to make a sky-swirl, and painted that with golden glitter stars. For the envelope, I tore out ribbon-width strips a section of AM New York that featured a Jasper Johns painting. Each envelope had two stripes of newspaper ribbon; I printed the names and addresses between them.

Also, for my love, I made chocolate truffles. They turned out so well–I’m delighted at how pretty they are. (So are my twenty-odd floormates…) I haven’t tasted one yet, but they sure are pretty.